3.0 Introduction
In this chapter the reports from the research’s fieldwork are compiled. Four case studies have been conducted. Each case was chosen as to represent a type of university. There is an elite social science institution (London School of Economics), a traditional full university (Freie University of Berlin), a technical university, and a virtual university. Furthermore the different localities in England, Germany, Spain and on the internet add to the generalizability of the insights gained. The following figure illustrates the structure of the case studies as outlined in the methodology chapter (2.3):

case_framework.jpg

Figure 3.1 – Interpretative Framework (Based on Yin 2003)


The informants are kept anonymous using a separate coding table. In order to indicate the perspective of the informant, stakeholder categories have been included in the final text. They are: student, faculty, administration [1] (for employees with none or few subordinates), and management for departmental directors, vice-rectors and similarly ranked chairpersons. Hence the format for citing interviewee information is (institution, role, internal reference number) [2].

The cases vary slightly in length, and it seems important to point out that this is by no means related to quality of the institution or interest by the researcher, rather it merely due to circumstantial probability of the availability data. For example the history section is naturally longer for an older than for a younger university.

 

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[1] And in some special cases also concrete functional title.
[2] The role has been omitted in cases of negative statements in order to maximize anonymity.




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